Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced Sunday that the Trump administration will not open up new bids to repair the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, as he fielded fresh questions about the troubled renovation project and how taxpayer money has been spent.
Both Burgum and President Donald Trump have expressed complete certainty that vandals are responsible for damage to the century-old pool on the National Mall. Trump has described a 350-foot gash cut into the pool’s liner during recent renovation work, while Burgum characterized it as several cuts that total that length. Burgum also indicated the pool would need to be at least partially drained within the coming week to complete the repair work.
The administration has no plans to bring in a different contractor for the job.
“We’ll use the same company, because they did a fantastic job,” Burgum said on CNN’s ‘State of the Union.’ “Thankfully, the vandalism was small. It was bad. I mean, it could cost tens of thousands of dollars to repair, so then it could fall into a felony … just like damaging any other government property could. But the job that was done to fix the Reflecting Pool was done extremely well.”
Earlier this spring, Trump pledged to have the Reflecting Pool looking its best before the country’s 250th birthday celebration on July Fourth. The pool was drained and Trump directed crews to paint the bottom a shade he referred to as “American flag blue.” However, once the site was refilled, an algae bloom overtook the water for more than a week, and sections of the newly applied coating began showing signs of peeling.
The pool was not accessible during the Independence Day festivities, though Burgum attributed that closure to a safety concern related to fireworks rather than the ongoing repair issues.
The ongoing controversy surrounding the Reflecting Pool has added fuel to a larger debate over Trump’s aggressive efforts to renovate Washington landmarks, including the White House, as he approaches the two-year mark of his final term.
Law enforcement has arrested more than a half dozen individuals in connection with damage to the pool. Among them is former Olympian David Hearn, who was indicted last week on a felony property destruction charge.
U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, the top federal prosecutor in the District of Columbia, said Hearn deliberately tore up recently installed sealant on the pool, causing more than $1,000 in damage. She described him as “forcefully and violently” pulling up the bottom liner “with both hands” and acting belligerently toward a worker who intervened.
Hearn’s legal team — Democracy Defenders Fund co-founder Norm Eisen and attorney Mary Dohrmann — called the charges “outrageous and should be alarming to every American.” They characterized the case as an example of “the misuse of government power against an ordinary citizen based on a concocted narrative.”
When asked whether photographic evidence exists of vandals cutting the pool’s liner, Burgum did not give a direct answer. He was also pressed on whether Hearn should face the maximum penalty of 10 years in prison for his charge.
“Just because you were a former something doesn’t exclude you from the law today,” Burgum said on CNN. “The courts will decide.”
Scrutiny continues to surround the no-bid contracts awarded for the project, both of which went to vendors with previous connections to Trump. An Ohio-based company known as Green Water Solutions, also referred to as Greenwater Services, received a $1.7 million contract to install a water-purification system in the pool. A Virginia-based firm, Atlantic Industrial Coatings, was awarded $14.7 million to repaint and waterproof the pool’s concrete floor.
Roughly 10 Democratic senators and House members have launched an investigation into the pool project. A letter signed last month by six senators stated: “Taxpayers deserve a full explanation of how these failures occurred and who will be held accountable for correcting them.”
Burgum also made an appearance on ABC’s ‘This Week’ on Sunday.
